Community Alliance for Global Justice
Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:32 CDT
Seattle, Washington - Farmers and civil society organizations around
the world are outraged by the recent discovery of further connections
between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and agribusiness titan
Monsanto. Last week, a financial website published the Gates Foundation's
investment portfolio, including 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock with an
estimated worth of $23.1 million purchased in the second quarter of 2010
(see the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission). This marks a
substantial increase from its previous holdings, valued at just over
$360,000 (see the Foundation's 2008 990
Form).
"The Foundation's direct investment in Monsanto is problematic on two
primary levels," said Dr. Phil Bereano, University of Washington Professor
Emeritus and recognized expert on genetic engineering.
"First, Monsanto has a history of blatant disregard for the interests
and well-being of small farmers around the world, as well as an
appalling environmental track record. The strong connections to Monsanto
cast serious doubt on the Foundation's heavy funding of agricultural
development in Africa and purported goal of alleviating poverty and
hunger among small-scale farmers. Second, this investment represents an
enormous conflict of interests."
Monsanto has already negatively impacted agriculture in African countries.
For example, in South Africa in 2009, Monsanto's genetically modified maize
failed to produce kernels and hundreds of farmers were devastated. According
to Mariam Mayet, environmental attorney and director of the
Africa
Centre for Biosafety in Johannesburg, some farmers suffered up to an 80%
crop failure. While Monsanto compensated the large-scale farmers to whom it
directly sold the faulty product, it gave nothing to the small-scale farmers
to whom it had handed out free sachets of seeds. "When the economic power of
Gates is coupled with the irresponsibility of Monsanto, the outlook for
African smallholders is not very promising," said Mayet. "
Monsanto's
aggressive patenting practices have also monopolized control over seed in
ways that deny farmers control over their own harvest, going so far as to
sue - and bankrupt - farmers for "patent infringement."
News of the Foundation's recent Monsanto investment has confirmed the
misgivings of many farmers and sustainable agriculture advocates in Africa,
among them the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition [
PDF],
who commented, "We have long suspected that the founders of AGRA - the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation - had a long and more intimate affair with
Monsanto." Indeed, according to Travis English, researcher with
AGRA Watch, "The Foundation's ownership of Monsanto stock is emblematic
of a deeper, more long-standing involvement with the corporation,
particularly in Africa." In 2008, AGRA Watch, a project of the Seattle-based
organization Community Alliance for Global Justice, uncovered many linkages
between the Foundation's grantees and Monsanto. For example, some grantees
(in particular about 70% of grantees in Kenya) of the Alliance for a Green
Revolution in Africa (AGRA) - considered by the Foundation to be its
"African face"- work directly with Monsanto on agricultural development
projects. Other prominent links include high-level Foundation staff members
who were once senior officials for Monsanto, such as Rob Horsch, formerly
Monsanto Vice President of International Development Partnerships and
current Senior Program Officer of the Gates Agricultural Development
Program.
Transnational corporations like Monsanto have been key collaborators
with the Foundation and AGRA's grantees in promoting the spread of
industrial agriculture on the continent. This model of production
relies on expensive inputs such as chemical fertilizers, genetically
modified seeds, and herbicides. Though this package represents enticing
market development opportunities for the private sector, many civil society
organizations contend it will lead to further displacement of farmers from
the land, an actual increase in hunger, and migration to already swollen
cities unable to provide employment opportunities. In the words of a
representative from the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition,
"AGRA is poison for our farming systems and livelihoods. Under
the philanthropic banner of greening agriculture, AGRA will eventually
eat away what little is left of sustainable small-scale farming in
Africa."
A 2008 report initiated by the World Bank and the UN, the International
Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development
(
IAASTD),
promotes alternative solutions to the problems of hunger and poverty that
emphasize their social and economic roots. The IAASTD concluded that
small-scale agroecological farming is more suitable for the third world than
the industrial agricultural model favored by Gates and Monsanto. In a
summary of the key findings of IAASTD, the Pesticide Action Network North
America (PANNA)
emphasizes the report's warning that "continued
reliance on simplistic technological fixes - including transgenic crops -
will not reduce persistent hunger and poverty and could exacerbate
environmental problems and worsen social inequity." Furthermore,
PANNA explains, "The Assessment's 21 key findings suggest that small-scale
agroecological farming may offer one of the best means to feed the hungry
while protecting the planet."
The Gates Foundation has been challenged in the past for its questionable
investments; in 2007, the
L.A. Times exposed the Foundation for
investing in its own grantees and for its "holdings in many companies that
have failed tests of social responsibility because of environmental lapses,
employment discrimination, disregard for worker rights, or unethical
practices."
The Times chastised the Foundation for what it called
"blind-eye investing," with at least 41% of its assets invested in
"companies that countered the foundation's charitable goals or
socially-concerned philosophy."
Although the Foundation announced it would reassess its practices, it
decided to retain them. As
reported by the
L.A. Times, chief executive of the Foundation
Patty Stonesifer defended their investments, stating, "It would be
naïve...to think that changing the foundation's investment policy could stop
the human suffering blamed on the practices of companies in which it invests
billions of dollars." This decision is in direct contradiction to the
Foundation's official "Investment Philosophy", which, according to its
website, "defined areas in which the endowment will not invest, such as
companies whose profit model is centrally tied to corporate activity that
[Bill and Melinda] find egregious. This is why the endowment does not invest
in tobacco stocks."
More recently, the Foundation has come under fire in its own hometown. This
week, 250 Seattle residents sent postcards expressing their concern that the
Foundation's approach to agricultural development, rather than reducing
hunger as pledged, would instead "
increase farmer debt, enrich
agribusiness corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta, degrade the
environment, and dispossess small farmers." In addition to
demanding that the Foundation instead fund "socially and ecologically
appropriate practices determined locally by African farmers and scientists"
and support African food sovereignty, they urged the Foundation to cut all
ties to Monsanto and the biotechnology industry.
About AGRA Watch
AGRA Watch, a program of Seattle-based Community Alliance for Global
Justice, supports African initiatives and programs that foster farmers'
self-determination and food sovereignty. AGRA Watch also supports public
engagement in fighting genetic engineering and exploitative agricultural
policies, and demands transparency and accountability on the part of the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and AGRA.